Young children are often required to sit in strollers, for example, during walks and shopping trips with their parents. These walks and the like often occur during cold weather, and as such the children must be wrapped warmly for comfort and health reasons. The easiest way to accomplish this is to wrap the child in a blanket. This method, however, is not effective, as the blanket often will fall off the child or may get tangled in the wheels of the stroller. Several attempts have been made to design blankets to remedy these disadvantages, but these blankets each have disadvantages of their own.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,738 to Menditto and U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,405 to Porter both disclose baby bags in which an infant may be disposed and securely wrapped. The bags are bifurcated to form individual leg pockets. The baby, once wrapped, may be placed in a carriage or stroller. A disadvantage of both of these prior art designs is that they are restrictive and may therefore be uncomfortable. Especially in the case of young children over the age of approximately one year, such a restrictive design is unnecessary and undesirable from a comfort perspective. Another disadvantage is that no effective provision is made for attaching the baby bag to a stroller so that the bag does not slip off the child or get caught in the wheels of the stroller.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,735,004 to Wooten et al. discloses a water resistant baby blanket assembly which can be draped over a stroller and attached thereto. (See Wooten et al., FIG. 11). A disadvantage of this design is that because the blanket is draped over the entire stroller and is not snugly wrapped about the child, drafts of cold air may enter under the blanket and chill the child. Another disadvantage is that the blanket covers the child's head, which may frighten the child, and which does not allow for monitoring of the child's well being.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,061 to Kenner discloses a child's poncho which may be worn by a child or fit over a child seated in a stroller. The poncho includes a lower opening 12 which may be disposed over the seat of the stroller and an upper opening 26 which may be disposed over the handles of the stroller. A disadvantage of this prior art design is that the child may not be fully protected, as cold drafts may be allowed to enter the poncho through the openings. Another disadvantage is that the lower opening 12 of the poncho may slip off the stroller as the child moves about, thereby exposing the child to the elements. A further disadvantage is that the poncho is not easily attachable to and detachable from the stroller, as the openings must be slid over the handles and seat of the stroller, which may be difficult.
What is desired, therefore, is a blanket for warming a child seated in a stroller, which does not easily fall off the child seated in the stroller, which does not readily get tangled in the wheels of the stroller, which inhibits drafts of cold air from chilling the child, which is comfortable for the child seated in the stroller, and which is easily attachable to and detachable from the stroller.